A hammer in every sewing kit.

Christmas

My fiancé is, if I’m honest, a bit of a nerd. He’s pretty into Batman also. So much so that I am not permitted to mention Shark Repellent Spray, which is a shame because I personally think that is the best thing that ever happened in Batman. He’s also pretty keen on sending me links to handmade nerdy stuff which he then makes sad puppy eyes about. I promise to make him one and then never do, because I am a terrible person.

To make it up to him, and also to keep his neck warm, for Christmas this year I made him a Batscarf. Not so terrible afterall!

I haven’t done a proper tutorial, because it wasn’t that complicated really and any crafty types out there can figure it out. Starting at the top, we have the Batsignal, which is made of felt. The yellow felt is on top of the black because it was easier to place the logo correctly like that. It’s blanket stitched around the signal, and while I did plan to blanket stitch the actual signal onto the scarf, it turns out I’m quite lazy and used the machine. So lazy, so quick!

The city skyline is, I think, Singapore somewhere. It’s another layer of fleece over the dark blue, machine stitched around and then cut out – so much easier than pinning little skinny buildings down and then having the machine eat the fleece halfway along. The windows are more felt. These are hand stitched on because the machine, as I just mentioned a second ago, eats little things. To be honest, I was going to skip the city lights, but I’m glad I didn’t – it looks so much better “lit up”

At the bottom, to break up all the black and balance the design (good lord that sounded good, I’m writing that down on a piece of paper to use again) I put in an outline of Batman himself. I like to think he’s gazing out over the city, about to respond to the call of the signal. Or he could have his back to the city, but also have his eyes closed. Works both ways.

To hide the back of the stitching, the whole thing is backed with black fleece and then topstitched around the edges, which was a bitch to do on the three layers at the bottom, but worth it. I like the border effect.

I’ve thumbnailed the last shot as it’s long, and also I know you like to click things. The whole thing is just over 5 feet long, and hopefully will keep the chap warm in the face of the Chicago winter, which is very snowfilled because it’s ridiculous.